A Storytelling Refresher for Your Church

The church loves stories. We’ve got a holy book full of them and Jesus loved to spout them. Parables FTW!

But as much as we love them, we need more practice in making stories work in our communication. So it’s nice that the Harvard Business Review offers this storytelling refresher.

“Stories don’t have to be video or huge, epic productions. They can just be short snippets of text.”

A Few Storytelling Highlights

Get to the Point: “Parachute in, don’t preamble.”

Fewer Words, More Meaning: “My high school English teacher, Mr. Wessling, used the analogy of the ‘magic grain truck’ to educate us about poetry. He said ‘imagine if a magic truck allowed a farmer to haul seven times the amount of grain that a normal truck usually holds?’ (Can you tell I grew up in Kansas?) We developed a long list of benefits such a truck would provide: fewer trips, less fuel, more free time, etc. Then he concluded: ‘Well boys that’s what poetry is. Using just a few carefully chosen and arranged words to carry much more meaning than their usual weight.’”

Be Quiet: “Use silence for impact and emphasis.”

Connect With People: “Don’t wash your eye contact over the crowd like a lighthouse, but actually connect with individuals.”

Stories in Social Media

Storytelling can also help to shore up your social media. PR News talks about finding stories in a corporate setting, with clear applications for the church. They talk about three ways to find stories:

“Ask who’s creating the big ideas.” – Where is the ministry happening in your church?

“Gather internal status reports.” – Corporations “produce a plethora of status reports”—sounds like a church. Loads of sermons, ministry reports and more you can mine for good stories.

“Step away from your desk.” – Get out there and find the stories. You can’t collect stories bunkered down at your desk with the door shut.

Practical Story Lessons

“Poetry is using just a few carefully chosen and arranged words to carry much more meaning than their usual weight.”

One Response to “A Storytelling Refresher for Your Church”

Steven W. Murray
October 20, 2014

Great reminders and ideas!

And yes — Scott’s “Tell Me a Story” is a great resource. I gave out copies and provided a brief review of it at our Leadership Team meeting in an effort to get them thinking about the power of stories, the need to find them, and how to integrate them into what we do as a church — and to emphasize that it cannot be limited to just what I am able to find and tell as the communications guy!